India is eyeing a tie-up with Russia to enhance its self-reliance in design and development of warships, including submarines, for the Navy and the Coast Guard.
A tie-up between the Kerala-based National Institute of Research and Development in Defence Shipbuilding (NIRDESH) and Russia’s Krylov Institute is on the cards, officials here said.
The Russian institute, set up in the 1890s, can help NIRDESH augment its capabilities. The Krylov Institute is the principal institution of the national shipbuilding industry and has a status of the Russian Federation State Research Centre for naval commercial ships. This status comes due to the high qualification of staff researchers and experts who have established their own world-recognised schools of learning and the unique complement of experimental facilities combined with innovative in-house research methods and tools. The Institute has all key experimental facilities relevant for several key aspects of the marine technologies.
NIRDESH was launched on January 4, 2011 by Defence Minister A.K. Antony to help in developing a robust defence industrial base by providing technology support and promoting ancillary industry participation in the defence shipbuilding sector.
Nodal officer
At a meeting of the Board of Governors of NIRDESH, headed by the Defence Minister, who is also the chairman of the institute, it was decided to appoint the head of the Naval Design Directorate as the nodal officer to support NIRDESH. For, the Navy would be the biggest beneficiary out of the output of the institute, defence sources said.
A sub-committee had been appointed by the Defence Ministry to prepare a road map for NIRDESH’s growth. Another panel would examine and select research and development projects to be undertaken by the Institute.
“One project on indigenisation of rubber items used on Scorpene submarines is already progressing at the Rubber Research Institute of India at Kottayam,” the sources said. NIRDESH would also take up projects related to development of civilian vessels.
